Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth: Remembering the Mayflower Pilgrims, 1620–2020
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
As in other histories, the history of Christianity has certain key turning-points after which the flow of historical events is profoundly transformed. Some of these moments of transition—well expressed by the Greek term kairos—are immediately pellucid to the student of church history: the Constantinian Revolution, the rise of the heresy of Islam, the Reformation, the Great Awakening. While not as immediately obvious as these turning-points, the sailing for America in 1620 of those whom historians have called the Pilgrims needs to be reckoned as a key event in the story of both the American nation and American Christianity. To be sure, there are some today who dispute its central role in the founding of America, yet generations of historians have accorded it a key place in that story, and it is in line with this older interpretation that this book of essays has been written. The various essays in this anniversary volume remember the manifold details of this historic voyage in an attempt to inform and even inspire the modern Christian as he or she seeks to be a faithful pilgrim to that heavenly country that was ever in the mind of the men and women whom these essays recall.
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- Offers fresh and exciting insights into the remarkable story of the Mayflower Pilgrims
- Describes one of the most important events in the history of the American Church
- Helps to dispel some common misconceptions regarding the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims
- Introduction - John Clements
- The Mayflower Pilgrims - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
- John Robinson: His Life and Teaching - Jonathan Piesse
- John Robinson’s Country - Adrian Gray
- William Bridge, A Norfolk Puritan - Michael A.G. Haykin
- Francis Johnson: Life, Controversies, and Freedom - Tom Nettles
- The Voyages of the Pilgrims - Francis J. Bremer
- Robert “Troublechurch” Browne and the “Brownist Emigration” - Gary Brady
- Stepping-Stones on the Congregational Way: The Ecclesiological Legacy of the Pilgrim Fathers - Nathan Tarr
- “Such Like Weighty Employments”: A Vindication of Elder William Brewster’s Quest for Religious Liberty - Andrews S. Ballitch
- The Pilgrim Fathers: The First Critical Years - Roland Burrows
- The Mayflower Compact and its Long Impact on American Values - Jason Dees
- Spiritual Lessons from the First Thanksgiving - David Roach
- Encounter with the Indians - Roy M. Paul
- The Pilgrim Mothers - Priscilla Wong
- The Pilgrims and Religious Liberty - Ryan Rindels
- The Spirituality of the Pilgrim Fathers - Nate Pickowicz
The Pilgrims had their blind spots but there is much in their example we can learn from. They were men and women of deep conviction, uneasily daunted, willing to suffer for principle’s sake. They loved their children, they loved the body of Christ, and they abandoned everything that was familiar to them in order to serve both. They exhibited enormous courage: can you imagine cramming 102 passengers into a ship’s hold the size of a school bus and making a sixty-fiveday voyage to a strange world? Having taken that initial step of faith, they then persevered in the face of unspeakable hardship and loss, half of the colony dying from exposure that first winter. Because the Mayflower stayed at Plymouth until the spring of 1621, the survivors could have returned to England, but none did. Finally, they exhibited a faith in God’s sovereignty that humbles me. What we remember as the “first Thanksgiving” was a celebration primarily of widowers and orphans. (Fourteen of the eighteen wives who made the voyage had died by spring.) That the Pilgrims could celebrate at all in this setting was a testimony both to human resilience and to heavenly hope.
—Robert Tracy McKenzie Holmes Professor of Faith and Learning Wheaton College
For many Americans, the word “Pilgrims” brings to mind little more than the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and eating turkey. However, the history of the Pilgrims is actually a story of Reformed Christians who embraced convictions that led them to separate from the Church of England, fleeing persecution, to establish a colony on the wild shores of the New World. This well-written and helpful collection of biographical and historical essays highlights both the foibles and courage of these Christians who played a major role in the foundation of a new nation. Implicit practical lessons relevant to the calling of contemporary Christians who strive to live biblically and faithfully abound in this enlightening book.
—Dr. Joel R. Beeke President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth: Remembering the Mayflower Pilgrims 1620– 2020 dissects providential myths of the religious group in a previously untapped way—centring their faith and theology. Through this transnational collection of views, bridging various traditions, this book gives the Mayflower Pilgrims great body and presence for the reader. The importance of Congregationalism in the story is not forgotten and its role in the construction of Christianity in America; a tradition founded on gathering perspectives and collective decision making, this book exhibits a similar sense of coming together. In particular, Piesse’s and Gray’s contributions on John Robinson will surely act as an essential reference for any future resource on the pastor of the Pilgrims. Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth reminds us to be journeymen in the world we inhabit; to truly be pilgrims in our hearts, minds and spirits and to ask: “What am I doing about what I believe?”
—Joseph Nockels Congregational Federation’s National Council, Nottingham, UK